


The Mystery of Why Wouldn’t Sanada go out with Hotori

by Gigglepud



Category: Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
Genre: F/M, Get Together, Humour, Love Confessions, Misunderstandings, Romantic Comedy, love potions, no dub-con dw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26355187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gigglepud/pseuds/Gigglepud
Summary: See, there are good mysteries. The interesting whodunnits and locked rooms that are all about the motives and alibis and intrigue. They’re the Christie or Doyle novels that sees adaptations after adaptation, that then inspire something even better out of Shimada or Yokomizo.And then there are the mysteries that just doesn't make sense. Like how: if Sanada is into Hotori, and Hotori may or may not like him back – isn’t something not adding up about what should happen next?(In which Hotori buys a love potion, there's a love confession, Sanada makes assumptions and Tatsuno is perpetually unimpressed.)
Relationships: Arashiyama Hotori/Sanada Hiroyuki
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The Mystery of Why Wouldn’t Sanada go out with Hotori

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beyond_bewildered](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_bewildered/gifts).



Hotori stares at her reflection, messy black hair reflected on a pristine white plate.

“I don’t get it,” Hotori grumbles to Tatsuno, the two of them leaning against the counter during a lull in their shift.

See, there are _good_ mysteries. The interesting whodunnits and locked rooms that are all about the motives and alibis and intrigue. They’re the Christie or Doyle novels that sees adaptations after adaptation, that then inspire something even better out of Shimada or Yokomizo.

And then there are the mysteries that just doesn't make sense. Like how: if Sanada is into Hotori, and Hotori may or may not like him back – isn’t something not adding up about what should happen next?

A few months ago, if you’d ask her, she’d vehemently deny that there was anything between her and Sanada at all. If she wanted romance, well, even great Detectives weren’t able to avoid love completely, but the objects of their affection were shrewd competitors in the mind, like Adler or Countess Rossakoff.

But romance in her real life has never clicked with logic; never cared about the needs of great detectives. So she’s left with the distracting, pulsing of her heart every time she sees him – screw Tatsuno for pointing out her feelings to her – and how is she supposed to get rid of that?

“Trust me, I don’t get it either,” Tatsuno retorts, though there’s no malice in her eyeroll.

Hotori waves a hand dismissively, there’s only a short time before Sanada’s likely to come in so she wants to discuss this _now_. She’d been waiting all day, ever since it came in the mail this morning, and she can barely contain her grin now.

“But all will be fine, of course! Behold--” Hotori announces, planting a small glass bottle on the countertop with a dramatic flourish. It’s filled with a clear, bubbly liquid – almost like Sangria, but a vial of Sangria probably wouldn’t have a pink heart-shaped sticker plastered on the glass. “A Love Potion!”

Hotori considers it a personal achievement that long moments of silence pass before Tatsuno finds words to respond.

“L-love potion?!” Tatsuno’s eyebrows are raised high above her bangs. “No way!”

“Look, I wrote an entire flowchart; if I need to establish a new normal where I’m not second guessing what I’m doing around him, then first we need to move past this wishy washy stage. And that means, he needs to ask me out. You did say he likes me, but he won’t ask me out, so he’ll need this extra push!” 

“That’s not how love potions work,” Tatsuno huffed, holding the vial up to her face. “How do you know it’ll work anyway? What if it’s poison?”

“It will work! The seller promised it’s a love potion!” Hotori snatched the potion back, pulling it close to her chest. “And it’s _fine_! This is just giving Sanada an extra little push! Genius, innit?”

“This is a terrible idea” Tatsuno crosses her arms. “If you can’t wait for him to ask you out – why don’t you do it?”

Hotori stills. Her widened eyes meet Tatsuno’s unimpressed glare. “Ask him out? Me?”

“Not you, but Head Maid should,” Tatsuno retorts drily. “Of course, _you_ , silly. Wouldn’t that be a lot more effective than some dodgy love potion?”

Hotori hums thoughtfully, a hand tapping her chin. It’s true, she could just get this all out in the open with a confession to Sanada. Just the thought of it sends her heart thudding like war drums – it’s intimidating; her nerves trembling up her spine.

But this is Sanada - he wouldn’t let her heart break and shatter into a million pieces, would he?

“Hotori, where did you take that plate? The curry’s ready!” Granny calls from the kitchen, snapping Hotori from her thoughts.

Trading her potion for the plate, she dashes into the kitchen. Tatsuno follows soon after, preparing for their rush hour – which is really to say it’s the only time when their customer count reaches a positive number.

And the love potion – well, Hotori didn’t take it with her, and Tatsuno certainly didn’t either.

So is it any wonder, when she returns from the kitchen as the bell rings in a new customer, that she sees Sanada lift the bottle in curiosity.

Hotori spins, clutching at Tatsuno – and it’s only a combination of Tatsuno’s skill and luck that she doesn’t spill the coffee.

“Why’s he looking at that?” Hotori hisses, nodding towards Sanada.

Tatsuno glares down at Hotori, “I don’t know – who’s fault is that? Deal with it yourself?”

“Nooo!” Hotori panics. “He’ll find out my horrible love potion plan!”

“I thought you called it genius.”

“If I admit I’m wrong, will you fix it?!”

Tatsuno heaves a loud exaggerated sigh. “Fine.”

She shoves the cup of coffee into Hotori’s hands then approaches Sanada. Hotori takes a few quick breaths, puts down the coffee on a nearby table, and waits until she sees Tatsuno start talking before she joins them.

She’s vaguely thinks the words “love potion” might just have left Tatsuno’s mouth, but she’s not really processing anything anyone is saying. When she reaches them, two pairs of eyes focus their attention on her, she grasps at the first thought to change the topic.

“Such nice weather today!” She all but yells.

Then regrets it, as Tatsuno and Sanada turns their head in sync towards the door – or technically, beside the door. At the umbrella stand. Where Sanada’s umbrella is still dripping from the rain.

Tatsuno turns back to Hotori first, shoots her a look that conveys _what the hell are you doing?_ And then saves the day by ushering Sanada to his usual seat.

“Get a hold of yourself!” Tatsuno berates when she’s pulled Hotori back into the kitchens. “If you’re going to confess – then just do it. All this tension is _killing_ me, and you know that’s terribly unfair.”

What’s unfair should be Tatsuno pulling the broken heart card every time they do this; Hotori knows she’s been eyeing a senpai from the student council recently. But Hotori figures her panicking is possibly more annoying in comparison, so it all balances out.

Hotori closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Then she schools her face into some semblance of calm and takes another breath. She reaches for the curtain separating the front and back of the café. Another breath. She turns back to Tatsuno. Her breath has quickened—

Tatsuno’s hand fly to her face. “Just go!”

“Okay, fine!” Hotori cries, and lets the adrenaline push her feet forward. Out of the kitchen, beyond the counter, pass the deserted tables, and straight to Sanada’s seat.

He looks up, opens his mouth, perhaps in greeting—but Hotori won’t let him stop her momentum now.

“Sanada! You’re free this Saturday, right?”

Sanada nods, his brows pulled slightly together because he and Hotori both know she doesn’t usually bother to ask.

“You planning something?”

Hotori bites her lip. She wants to drag this out, keep up her pretence that there is no correlation between looking at Sanada and the rapid beating of her heart. She turns to look at Tatsuno, who nods encouragingly before turning back to the cashier, giving Hotori some weak semblance of privacy.

Hotori takes a breath. “What do you think about the idea going out on a date. Me. And you. Together?”

There. Her heart, beating rapidly as a rabbit, hanging by her sleeve.

His eyes widen, and she’s witnessing the transition of all sorts of emotions on his face in quick succession. Widened eyes, reddening cheeks, reddening ears, reddening everywhere – if she really stops to look, then the slight shake of his head in disbelief, before he breaks into a smile that feels like the first rays of a sun parting the night.

She meets his eyes, and she can feel it, the metaphorical hands that reaches out to cradle her lovestruck heart so carefully.

“Y-you want to g-go out with m-me?” Sanada is barely forming words.

“Yes!” Hotori nods emphatically. “I like you – a lot! And I think you like me too! And though I thought it would be super cute to be romanced the way they do it in books, well, it occurred to me just now,” She gestured vaguely towards the counter, hoping it could encapsulate Tatsuno and her contribution to her revelation, even if she didn’t want to be talking about someone else right now. “-That if I was being unrealistic, well, dating you is the more important thing.”

Sanada nods along, until he doesn’t. His eyes snap towards the counter, then he’s shifting back, hands held up as he puts distance between the two of them.

“Oh no,” he breathes out softly.

“What?” Hotori, voice equally quiet, goes cold.

“Uh, wait- Arashiyama-san, I don’t think- I can’t- You’re not—” Sanada is stammering again, but not in a good way. Hotori can the cold sweat clinging to the back of her shirt. With a sudden burst of energy, Sanada finishes with a shout, “We can’t, you’ll regret it later! You don’t like me like that!”

Hotori is left speechless when Sanada leaps from his seat and dashes out the café, not pausing even to grab his umbrella before he runs straight into the rain.

The bell at the door echoes jarringly loud in her head.

She turns towards the counter, Granny and Tatsuno watching silently at the door.

“Oh good job, you scared away the only customer we have,” Granny grumbles before heading back into the kitchens.

Hotori stares at Tatsuno, her head aching from so many questions – like _what?_ And _why?_ And _Did that really just happen_? But none of them jab at her brain the way his words, still echoing inside her, make a pincushion of her heart.

“This is all your fault,” Hotori wails instinctively. “Why did you make me confess to him?!”

“I didn’t.”

Hotori dropped her head into her hands. “This is such a mistake – you should never have convinced me about my feelings. Now everything’s changing and it’s all going to be ruined. Why did you ever let me do this!?”

Tatsuno was without a retort for the first time. Hotori glares and Tatsuno looks back with something akin to pity. It saps all the anger out of Hotori. Her shoulders sag.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Hotori said glumly to Tatsuno, though her attention was on the floor.

“I think,” Tatsuno said slowly, frowning in thought. “He might have made the wrong assumption. If he thinks _you’re_ under the influence of the potion, he probably thinks you’ll wake up in a few hours and hate him for it.”

Tatsuno picks up the love potion off the counter and holds it out to Hotori.

“Oh.”

She snatches the potion, staring at it. How did she ever think this would be the solution to the problems, when apparently it has only caused her relentless trouble throughout the day? That’s 600yen wasted for nothing!

She stuffs the stupid potion into her pocket and leaves – figures Granny wouldn’t mind; she’s not ditching work, she’s just recovering their sole souce of income. She takes Sanada’s umbrella, because only one of them has to be an idiot.

It takes a while to find Sanada as she makes her way through their usual haunts. By the time she finds him, hovering underneath a bridge by the river, the rain has almost let up.

Hotori has the advantage here, she arrives from behind and Sanada doesn’t seem to notice her as he stares intently at the rushing currents of the river.

Hotori grips the potion in her pocket. Opens her mouth to, confess about the potion, or re-confess her feelings, but her brain lurches at the last moment.

“Hahaha! Sanada, you gullible fool – did you really believe that? I was joking, of course!” She declares, loud enough to make Sanada jump.

Sanada flushes deep red. “Of course- of course, oh.” He scratches the back of his head. “Just a joke. Of course.”

Hotori takes a seat next to Sanada on the dirty bank, so they’re both staring at the river now. It takes her a while to calm her heart, to shed her inner protections of jokes and nonchalance.

“Or not,” she amends quietly. “It wasn’t a joke.”

Sanada tenses beside her. But as long as she had that olive branch in her hands, the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere.

“It wasn’t,” she repeats. She pulls out the vial of love potion, hands it to Sanada. “What do you think happened back there, in the café? Why did you run out?”

Sanada swallows audibly. He seemed to think if he waited long enough, Hotori could give him an out, but assumptions got them into this position, and it’s not going to get them out.

“Are you sure you didn’t eat or drink anything weird today?” Sanada asks, in the end. “Maybe you drank a love potion, and part of its magic is making you forget you did? Making you think your feelings are real.”

Hotori can’t help the sudden warmth that blossomed in her chest. Maybe Sanada wasn’t _completely_ hopeless on the Detective’s Assistant front.

But only ‘maybe’.

“If that’s the case, have you considered the possibility that your own feelings might have been influenced by the magic potion?”

Sanada’s expression closes-up. He’s indignant when he says, “No! Absolutely not! I would know if it was fake, because- well… it doesn’t feel fake!”

There’s an onslaught of emotions rushing at Hotori, that she can’t really pick apart right now. There’s a small thrill at the admission of feelings; she knew how he felt, of course, she’d been vaguely aware of that for a while now, but this confirmation is nice.

However, any happiness is overridden by a strong exasperation as she’s forced to take back that statement about _any_ potential Sanada has as a detective’ assistant; not with that logic-less argument.

“Or,” Hotori takes the potion back, barely resisting to roll her eyes. She unscrews the potion and shows the bottle to Sanada again. “You can tell no one has used the potion because the plastic seal is still attached!”

“Oh.”

“So, when you consider the facts, I think it’s fair to conclude what you did back in the café was totally rude,” Hotori says with a disgruntled hum. “And you certainly shouldn’t expect a lady to confess twice in a day!”

“Oh,” Sanada repeats, head drooped as he returns his attention to the river.

Hotori stares with wide eyes, resisting the urge to slam her head into her palms. What does it take for a guy to take a hint and grow a pair?

“Sanada,” she sighs dramatically. “This means that as far as I’m concerned, I’m still very single and if anyone were to ask me out today, I’d probably say yes.”

Sanada sits up, panic driving up his voice. “Wait – is anyone else asking you out?!”

Hotori squints at Sanada until the creases in Sanada’s forehead clears.

“Oh! Right! Uh, Arashiyama-san, will you go out with me?”

Hotori turns to face Sanada properly, takes her time as she observes Sanada’s bowed head and extended hand, the nervous twitching of his legs disturbing small bursts of dust into the air. She looks back at the river for a moment, at the rush and pull of the water current, heading towards the vast unknown.

She’s smiling when she responds.

When they return to Maid Café Seaside, hand in hand, everyone else is _busy_. Which is ridiculous, for a café with no customers.

Yet Granny is humming in the kitchen, testing out a new curry recipe, while Tatsuno has taken the task of rearranging some of the seating at the back of the café. But Granny winks when Hotori drops by the kitchen, and Tatsuno isn’t as good as she thinks at hiding her smile, so Hotori figures it’s okay to declare she’s taking a break and serve Sanada a latte to share.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really go here, so sorry for any ooc-ness or discrepancies from canon, but I did do lots of googling and consulting with [beyond_bewildered](/users/beyond_bewildered/) to try get them as in-character as possible! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos & comments would be appreciated!


End file.
